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The Great Armor, or Armor Lord, is an enemy in the Castlevania series. It is one of Castlevania's many elite armored guardians, a heavily armored knight built out of the corpses of great and powerful warriors.

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The Great Armor is a giant Sword Knight that wields a Great Sword and sometimes a shield. While it boasts high defense and attack power, it is generally the most basic variant of giant armors, being less powerful than a Final Guard and less maneuverable than a Victory Armor.

One of the tougher enemies encountered in the earlier areas of the game, this enemy is an enormous armored knight, garbed in royal purple gear with gold trim. Although this incarnation of the Armor Lord doesn't carry a physical shield, it is capable of projecting an energy shield which is impregnable to any attacks made by Alucard. All variants share this capability. In addition, its enormous sword can dish out major damage, but its attacks are slow and very easy to dodge. All variants are also capable of performing a rapid thrusting attack, quite similar to the Rapier's special attack.

The Great Armor is found in this game as the game's third boss in the Study, and later as a common enemy in the Clock Tower. These enemies, much like the Golems, are really slow but pack a punch. They only have two attacks, which can easily be avoided. The first one is a thrust to the area below the sword, which Soma can crouch under to avoid damage, while still allowing him to attack the Great Armor. The second attack is trying to smash the sword down, which again requires Soma to remain close. While not considered an attack, the Great Armor can also raise up its shield to block all attacks for a few seconds.

The later versions of this enemy, Final Guard and Shadow Knight, add one more attack to the repertoire of Great Armor attacks. They charge their swords up and stab the ground, sending a shock wave of energy toward Soma. However, it can be easily jumped over.

Soma can acquire two souls from defeating a Great Armor. After the official boss battle, he gets the MalphasAbility Soul, allowing him to do a double jump, which helps to access the Dance Hall area. The soul that the Great Armors drop later in the game is the Great Armor guardian soul, which grants the Strength Booster ability. This soul's in-game description is incorrect; it increases Soma's STRto 120% while active, not by 120%.

In this game, the Great Armor has been given an increase in size and a changed color design, but the tactics are the same. These enemies can be found in the Dark Chapel area of the castle. While not a particularly strong enemy, they have somewhat bulky defense, allowing for resisted attacks.

Because they are normal enemies, however, they can be fought as many times as desired Their soul is also one of the most useful souls in the entire game. They drop the Great Armor Guardian Soul, which grants the Great Armor Familiar ability, which instead of increasing Soma's strength like in the last game, has the soul of a Great Armor fights alongside him as a familiar.

While they retain their size and design from Dawn of Sorrow, their color scheme is changed to red for Portrait of Ruin. They use the same tactics they used in Dawn of Sorrow, but are considerably weaker this time around.

Found in the Library and in the Arms Depot, Great Knights are one of Castlevania's many elite armored guardians. They pace at a very slow rate and mainly attack by slamming the massive axes they wield on the ground, so ranged combat or hit-and-run tactics are recommended.

They have been slightly redesigned from previous installments and have a chance of dropping the Melio Asciaglyph, which allows Shanoa the ability to wield the most powerful variant of axe-type weaponry in the game.